Where's the Olde Animal Joke threade gone?

[Captain Kev]

It was here yesterday, I definitely left it here, it was quite happy to live here, and didn't complain whatsoever about it's on-line superinformation highway Treehouse habitat.
I didn't shout at it or call it names, It in no way heard the adults arguing.
In short there's no reason why it should abscond from WAB.

So where is it?

Answers to the name of Joke threade
Much loved WAB family pet, extremely low Reward offered.


Please help

[Boddie]

A number of complaints were made regarding the content of some of the posts that were designed to thinly veil swear words and it was felt that they were unappropriate. I am sure you know which ones they were Kev

[Imaginos]

Is it not possible to delete the offending posts & leave the rest of the thread? There were some good jokes there...
There were also some very bad ones so maybe getting rid of the thread wasn't too bad

[Boddie]

How can I put this?

It seemed that the thread had not degenerated but was infact initiated to see how far the boundaries could be pushed and the same poster continued throughout to see what he / she could get off with.

Apparently there was alot of phonetic swearing and OOOOO'ing out of words, when it was quite obvious what they were substituting.

WAB is now being used extensively as a tool in schools so it was felt that some of the material was inappropriate.

Its easy to forget that there are a number of profiles that use WAB and some of the content may not be appreciated by all.

Could have been tackled by PM, and not made so public, but it seems that method is frowned upon as a way to try to save people embarrassment, have a debate or diffuse a situation. So effectively rather than do that the thread gets deleted and the good posts go too.

[chunkychambers]

I'm with you Boddie.....100%

[Boddie]

Now what would be really good is if everyone just read this thread but failed to add to it so that it just fell off the bottom of the boards, thus saving an individuals dignity and not advertising that we had had an incident in the first place.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Boddie

Now what would be really good is if everyone just read this thread but failed to add to it so that it just fell off the bottom of the boards, thus saving an individuals dignity and not advertising that we had had an incident in the first place.

No it would be good if these things were dealt with by moderators, or statements made by moderators, and people concerned informed, without being left in the dark.

[Beryl]

Yup. I agree.
I wonder who complained. most of them were good and there were no actual bad words

[StuartDH]

I deleted some of the posts yesterday that I felt had pushed the innuendo a bit too far.

Whenever deleting a post I try to PM, but sometimes it's just not possible as unfortunately I simply don't have the time - it rarely ends with the one PM and it takes a lot of time to answer the usual (and numerous) 'freedom of speech' responses.

I think the posters already knew they were taking the risk and continued to post even though they'd already said that 'big brother was watching' - so no reason to PM an explaination.

As much as possible, we'd like to have a family site where teachers can tell their pupils to go and look for info for homework, and parents can happily visit with their kids.

One thing that's baffled me though, is why the whole thread has disappeared? I noticed that glsammy deleted a spam post the other day and the whole thread disappeared, so there may be a bug in the forum which I'll try and sort out.

Stu

[StuartDH]

Originally Posted by Alan

No it would be good if these things were dealt with by moderators, or statements made by moderators, and people concerned informed, without being left in the dark.

Just to add a quick note - I hope that everyone feels that they should be a moderator on the site to some extent. This is genuinely everyone's site and we should hopefully all have a vested interest in moderating it to be a great site that is free of spam, offensive content etc. I can't think of another forum that has such a cracking community and I think it's due in no small part to number of members who regularly help keep the spammers, advertisers etc off the site.

Stu

[Captain Kev]

I'm sorry but this is beyond me, I would appreciate it if someone could PM me with an explanation of the offending parts/words. As up to the last time I looked at the thread, there was nothing in my opinion that could be deemed as offensive or harmful to minors. Indeed nothing that isn't already being bantered about in numerous other threads.

[StuartDH]

I appreciate that you didn't find the content offensive, but I had to consider the opinions of the other members (1 reported post, 4 PMs, 4 emails) who felt that it was maybe a step too far. You also knew the content was risky when you started the thread that 'big brother would be watching'. We don't want the site to become a wildlife version of Viz magazine and I decided to delete the posts, unfortunately the whole thread disappeared - still not sure why

We've got kids, families, schools and funders all looking at the site and so we have to consider a wide range of visitors. Teachers and parents would recognise that the jokes were a bit too much and might tell their kids not to visit the site. Funders might look at the thread and decide not to support us with £0000s. For the sake of a few gags, its not worth the risk and whilst we try to be as open as possible, we have to consider the possible effects on the charity.

As for the other threads you mentioned, I'll happily remove any similar content. PM me a list and I'll change or delete the words.

Stuart

[Captain Kev]

Quotes by Boddie

How can I put this?

It seemed that the thread had not degenerated but was infact initiated to see how far the boundaries could be pushed and the same poster continued throughout to see what he / she could get off with.

This is ridiculous, how on earth can you know this, are you psychic? Why have you made this up, have you any proof? this is obviously a figment of your own imagination. If the joke thread was still around, people could make their own minds up about it, but as it's been totally removed I cannot defend it, a very brave statement Boddie, and one for which the folk who have already read the thread will be, like me, bemused at your delusions.

In actual fact if you had bothered to read my first post in the original thread you would have seen that the joke thread was a follow on from another thread started by someone else.

Apparently there was alot of phonetic swearing and OOOOO'ing out of words, when it was quite obvious what they were substituting.

Please define "alot", what words, how many exactly.
Of course it was "obvious" what word it was substituting, no one would have got the joke otherwise, it was a Joke you see, something to make a person laugh.

Oh and the one word you are pertaining to which began with a letter then had several *** in it and ended with another letter was not a swear word, it is classed in the dictionary as slang, look it up.

WAB is now being used extensively as a tool in schools so it was felt that some of the material was inappropriate.

Again please define so that we all know what material is inapropriate.
Bear in mind I can only defend my own posts, although I cannot remember anyone elses posts being offensive.
I have copies off my own jokes.

Could have been tackled by PM, and not made so public, but it seems that method is frowned upon as a way to try to save people embarrassment, have a debate or diffuse a situation. So effectively rather than do that the thread gets deleted and the good posts go too.

Don't worry, I don't get embarrased easily and surely it involves the other people who posted on the thread as well, don't they want to know what happened?, don't they want to know what will offend certain people on the site?

As for posting the "Big brothers watching thing", I honestly meant it to be a hint to posters to keep things clean, (ironic isn't it) but this also is construed as something sinister.

I thank you Stuart for replying.
I also thank you Boddie for deputising as a moderator and complaining so soon after coming back from your holiday and after the thread had been running along smoothly for a whole week without problems.

Anyone is welcome to debate me, but please stick to facts and don't make things up.

[StuartDH]

Kev, I don't get where you're going with this now, but just give it up. The posts have been deleted and they're not coming back.

I fail to see why you're now slamming Boddie after you made your initial query and he attempted to give a possible explanation (which for the record is virtually spot on). I take it you were asking the community for their opinions, otherwise you'd have PM'ed the mods for an explanation about where the thread had gone, but then you've launched into an attack on one of the members for giving their take on the situation

The simple fact is that you're posts contained content that a number of members didn't feel was suitable for the site. I agreed. I deleted it. End of.

[Imaginos]

Originally Posted by Boddie

Could have been tackled by PM, and not made so public, but it seems that method is frowned upon as a way to try to save people embarrassment, have a debate or diffuse a situation. So effectively rather than do that the thread gets deleted and the good posts go too.

Originally Posted by StuDH

We don't want the site to become a wildlife version of Viz magazine and I decided to delete the posts, unfortunately the whole thread disappeared - still not sure why .

Who's in charge here?